Reviews for Tiny Vessels Lyrics

Before you go bashing ben gibbard for his insensitivity, you should consider that he may have been writing from someone else's perspective. Thats how I always viewed this song. Dark, and sarcastic about a guy who used a girl he knew, and how he could have loved her better.

You navel-gazing douchebags (amen and everfading) on this forum, stop projecting your bullsh*t on this plainly self-evident song. It is beyond conjecture. The writer states his views clearly. He does not love her. But he feels guilty because said he did. He was caught up, and he feels cheap about the rough sex they had because he didn't care about her at all. He's sheepish about telling her. Simple as that!

i love this song. my opinion is this is a situation of a guy who wants to get over his ex so tries with a new girl. she is beautiful and he tells her how much he loves her but he can't force the feelings anymore. he obviously still loves his ex and the song proves that even intimacy with a beautiful girl won't stop you from loving the person you love. he realizes he is wrong and feels bad for all he is putting the girl through but he knows that staying with her is fake, "And we'll pretend that it meant something so much more But it was vile, and it was cheap." i don't necessarily think the guy is an idiot bc he is taking the time to write a song about it so he clearly cares it just isn't meant to be. he definitely made a mistake leading the poor girl on, but hey life goes on. i wish i could take my own advice, it would really make things a lot easier.

I think its about a guy who is losing interest in someone that he once loved. He doesnt like it and hes trying to force himself to be back in love but he has just simply fallen out of love and feels pretty bad about it. Its like the thoughts inside his head that he would never say in a relationship that has just gone stale.

I don't really think the guy is a jerk necessarily, because I think he has good intentions and wants to care about the girl, but for some reason still doesn't. He starts with his realization that he's been telling her that he has feelings for her, but they're false. I think the 'two weeks in Silverlake' represent how quickly or unexpected whatever happened between them. And then he expresses he wanted to believe things he was telling her, which I think happens a lot, when you want to feel someway, so you say that it's how you feel in hopes that one day you will.
When she asks her question, I think that he can't answer because it shouldn't have happened in the first place and they're not in a place to be discussing such things.
"And we'll pretend that it meant something so much more"
I think here he's saying that they both know that the feelings between them weren't what they may have let on, but they wont ruin it by saying that.

I think an alternate explanation is that he's cheating on his own significant other, which better explains "vile and cheap" and why he had to leave.

We can't assume that the song is about anything. We can interpret it in our own way, but we can't just say, "It's about this!" Take it how you want. It means something different to everyone else, including the writer. It's a beautiful song.

for me PERSONALLY, i relate to the song as it being someone who is in a relationship, and has a moment where they realize that they just dont mean it when they say i love you anymore, and that they want to mean what they are saying, but dont. And at the same time, they dont want to say anything is wrong because of upsetting the other person.
i know you will all say that im wrong, but i relate to it this way because i have been in this situation. so thats what it means for me

You guys are all wrong.
This is a guy that is using a girl.
He'll say the things she wants to hear just so they can shag up, hence when he mentions the things he wanted to believe when they moved together in the dark.
He swindles her and uses her
And when its time to end they have that one last touch, rather one last sex experience
And then he says that she is beautiful but that she doesn't mean a thing to him.
She is a really pretty girl, but she isn't the girl he cares for or wants.

I completely agree with everfading. The speaker really reveals some of his psychological issues in this song. And whether he's guilt-ridden, in denial, or has power/detachment-issues, the fact is this experience with this girl has stuck in his mind and he feels some sort of release singing that no, no, we made love, but she doesn't mean anything to me.

I used to hate this song until I realized that. Cuz I was like, "what a douchebag...I have one night stands where the dude says 'I love you' and I can't say it back but a) that doesn't mean that it's meaningless and b) I don't go writing songs about how someone has unrequited love for me."

But exactly everfading. If you write a song about it, it's not effing meaningless. Even if you don't write a song about it, it still isn't meaningless. And, don't be afraid of feeling affection for someone that you're not in love with.

Boys are silly, even really talented song-writing boys.

i love this song but i think you guys are all missing the fact that he wrote a song for her! or this experience with her, obviously she is something of significance for him,just not love, or what he perceive as love at the time! but hey "Someday you will be loved"

He is cheating…
He meets a woman and has a 2 week “fling” at Silver Lake. He wants to believe in all the words that he is speaking to her but it’s meaningless. With every bite he gives her… leaves her with feelings for him that she never wants to fade. Reality sets in their time together is over. So when she asks "Is something wrong?” He thinks "You're damn right there is but we can't talk about it now”. He knows it was vile, and it was cheap. He told her that he loved her but he doesn’t. So one last touch and then she'll go and pretend that it meant something so much more. Yeah, she was beautiful but she don't mean a thing to me. Yeah, she was beautiful but she didn't mean a thing to me.

I think that this song is about a man telling the girl he was with that he loved her when he really did not mean it. I think the man feels bad that they are having sex when he says "I wanted to believe all the words that I was speaking as we moved together in the dark".
Then I think when the man breaks up with the girl he realises that there love was just 'vile & cheap' and that there was really no love there at all which is why he keeps saying "She is beautiful but she don't mean a thing to me".

This song is about a guy who's trying to get over a girl. & though this new girl is beautiful, she doesn't mean a thing to him. No matter how hard he tried, he knew it was all a lie. "I wanted to believe in all the words that I was speaking" Just goes to show. I had an experience like this, with a guy who I wasn't over his ex. He tried to have a relationship with me. But he knew it was all so fake, & though I am beautiful I didn't mean a thing to him.

I think of the song as a man realizing that he is gay. I think that he knows he is gay and is having a hard time addmitting it to himself and the world and the girl he is dating. I think that she is his way of testing himself. I think that he knows he should love this girl, but he can't, and he is trying with all his might.
This is so sad, and it instantly brought me to tears when I first heard it.

did anyone notice that this song is similar to a movie script ending?

here, he writes "So one last touch and then you'll go
And we'll pretend that it meant something so much more
But it was vile, and it was cheap"

in a movie script ending, gibbard writes, "with your hands on my shoulders, a meaningless movement, a movie script ending."

that is sort of the same because he wants the movement, or the "last touch" to mean something more than it does, but it doesn't, and it is "vile" and "cheap," just like in the end of those hollywood romantic comedies where the two main characters end up together, but who knows how long the relationship is going to last? they are both beautiful, but their love means nothing and is cheap and emtpy

also, did anyone hear that ben gibbard is engaged to zooey deshanel? for someone who doesn't care about looks, he really found a gorgeous woman to marry.